


The Ghosts of Years Long Past

by Settiai



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 2 (Critical Role), Family, Gen, One Shot, Post-Campaign 1 (Critical Role), Presumed Dead, Sending, Twitter Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:28:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25512094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/pseuds/Settiai
Summary: Keyleth wasn't certain what to think when a stranger named Jester started sending her messages via magic.
Comments: 26
Kudos: 321





	The Ghosts of Years Long Past

"Hi! I’m Jester. Are you Keyleth? I don’t know if this is working, but if you hear me you can reply to this message and—"

Keyleth froze in place at the sound of an unfamiliar voice in her head, and she instinctively looked around her. The sun had almost completely disappeared over the far horizon, and the moons were slowly brightening over her head. She didn’t see anyone or anything out of the ordinary, and the as far as she could tell she was alone save for a familiar raven perched on a tree branch above her.

She bit her lip. The voice hadn’t been familiar, nor had she recognized the name – Jester – that it had given. It had sounded feminine, and there’d been a definite accent although she wasn’t entirely certain where it might come from.

It would probably be safer to ignore it. Vox Machina’s notoriety had faded somewhat over the years, but there were still plenty of people out there who remembered them. It could be nothing, just some magic user who’d grown up hearing stories of them realizing that they could potentially talk to their childhood heroes. Or it could be a trap. There’d been enough of those over the years that she couldn’t just dismiss the idea.

But...

"I hear you," Keyleth said, and she instinctively knew that whoever the person who’d sent the message was, they could hear her reply. "Who is this? What do you want?"

She waited, but there wasn’t a reply. A warm breeze blew past, ruffling her hair, and the raven perched in the tree above her tilted his head in what was obviously a mixture of curiosity and concern.

Keyleth frowned before mentally shrugging and putting her worries to the side for the time being. Whatever that had been about, it was probably unimportant. Besides, she was leaving for Whitestone in the morning. If anything did come out of it, she’d have her friends beside her whenever her decision to send a reply came back to bite her.

And if not, well, it would just be another one of those mysteries that she’d never know the answer to. There’d been a lot of those over the years. What was one more in the grand scheme of things?

"I won’t be here the next few days," Keyleth said, glancing upwards. The raven was barely visible in the growing dark, save for two eyes that seemed to almost be glowing in the moonlight. "I’m sure you already knew that, but we’re all getting together for the Zenith in Whitestone." She smiled. "It will be nice to see everyone. It’s been too long."

The raven stared at her, unmoving, for a long few seconds. Then he gave her what looked almost like a nod before spreading his wings and taking off into flight, disappearing into the dark without a single sound. Just like always.

Keyleth’s smile fell slightly, and she knew that it had probably turned a bit more bittersweet than she’d intended. Another breeze blew past her, this one surprisingly cool considering summer was so close, and she shivered a little before pulling her mantle a bit closer around her.

For just a moment, she had the strangest feeling that someone was watching her, a pair of eyes focused on her in the darkness, but when she glanced around she didn’t see anything.

She made a mental note to tell the guards to be on extra alert the next few days. Just in case.

*

"And then he had the nerve to actually tell me that I was—Vesper, grab that knife from your sister before she stabs someone with it again—that I was _lying_ ," Vex said, rolling her eyes. "Lying! Me!"

Beside her, Percy cleared his throat. "In the man's defense," he said, "you were lying."

"Well, yes, but he didn’t know that!" Vex shot back, glaring at him even though the amusement in her eyes made it clear that she wasn’t actually upset. "They thought—" She cut off abruptly, her eyes going wide. "Do _not_ dump that juice on your brother’s head!"

Keyleth hid her smile behind her wine glass as she brought it up to take another swallow, her gaze drifting over the chaotic table she was sitting at. Grog was sitting at the far end of table, several of Scanlan and Pike’s children seemingly using him as a tree to climb as he ignored them with ease and kept steadily clearing his plate and mug. The parents in question were having a quiet conversation, although Scanlan’s gaze kept flickering in Percy’s direction in a way that, quite frankly, made Keyleth suspicious.

Percy and Vex were talking with Kima and Allura, for the most part, although both of them had to frequently turn their attention back to their children. Vesper and Little Percy – and they really needed to find a new nickname for him, since at sixteen-years-old he wasn’t all that little any longer – were doing the best they could to keep their younger siblings in line, but they were outnumbered and didn’t quite have their parents’ knack for making them listen to them.

Shaun was having a conversation with Tary and Larry although she couldn’t help but notice that Larry’s attention kept being drawn to the window on the far end of the room. Keyleth glanced that way and then quickly looked away. She wasn’t particularly certain why there was a man wearing an owlbear cowl dangling upside down outside the window, but she recognized him from Taryon’s brigade who he’d introduced earlier and she wasn’t going to ask any questions.

She forced her attention back to the table, letting her gaze continue drifting over it. Kash, Zahra, and Dan were—

"Sorry I didn’t send another message yesterday! I ran out of spell slots. This is Jester again! Where are you? We found someone who really—" There was a pause before the message in her head continued. "—really wants to see you. She doesn’t want me to tell you who she is over Sending, but I know she’s super important to you."

Keyleth hadn’t actually intended to gasp in surprise at the unexpected sound of a stranger’s voice in her head again, and she didn’t even realize she did it until pretty much everyone at the table was staring at her.

"What happened?" Grog asked, glancing up from his plate. He grabbed the oldest of Scanlan and Pike’s children as the little girl went tumbling off his shoulder at the unexpected movement, setting her down in his lap instead.

Keyleth felt a slight prickle of magic around her as the spell that this Jester had used faded as it seemed to realize that she wasn’t going to reply.

Beside her, Vex reached over and gently touched her hand. Keyleth realized that she was clenching her wineglass a bit tighter than she probably should be, and she quickly loosened it. "Darling, is there something wrong?"

Keyleth flushed slightly. "Sorry," she said, frowning a bit. "Someone named Jester keeps sending me messages in my head. I have no idea who she is, but—"

She cut off abruptly as, on the other side of the table, Allura suddenly into a coughing fit.

As one, everyone’s gaze went from Keyleth to Allura. Beside her, Kima had brought her hand up to cover her face and was shaking her head in what was either annoyance or amusement. After knowing her for almost twenty-two years, it will still difficult to tell.

"She said that her name was Jester?" Allura asked, once she managed to get her coughing under control. "You’re certain?"

Keyleth nodded. "Yes," she said. "Do you know her?"

Kima snorted. "That’s one word for it."

Allura elbowed her wife in the side before reaching up to rub the bridge her nose. "Yes, I think that I do," she said. "If she’s who I think she is, then she’s a member of the Mighty Nein. They’re a group of adventurers out of Wildemount who I’ve met a few times."

Tary leaned forward at that, recognition on his face. "Oh!" he said. "I’ve heard of them. The rumor is that they’re masters of disguise and planning, and they singlehandedly managed to stop an attack on Rexxentrum."

Allura let out a very undignified snort of laughter before reaching for her wineglass. "Masters of disguise and planning," she repeated. "That’s... certainly a rumor."

Pike frowned. "Why would someone in Wildemount be trying to send messages to Keyleth?" she asked. She glanced at Keyleth. "Did she say what she wanted?"

Keyleth gave a helpless shrug. "She wanted to know where I was," she said. "There was something about them finding someone who really wanted to see me? She was vague."

"Just how well do you know this person?" Percy asked, looking towards Allura. "Do you trust her? Can you think of any reason why she’d want to get in contact with Keyleth?"

Allura said something in reply, but Keyleth didn’t hear it as her attention was focused more on the voice in her head that was becoming more and more familiar with every message that she got.

"I know you heard me. It’s really important! We found your mom! She had, like, amnesia and didn’t remember anything, but we killed Vokodo so—"

Keyleth felt the entire world disappear. The only thing she could focus on were the four words that she’d just heard, as clear as day, in the middle of this latest message from some random stranger on the other side of the world. _We found your mom._ "What did you just say?"

There wasn’t a reply.

_We found your mom._

"Keyleth?" Percy’s voice sounded like it was coming from far away. "Keyleth, did you get another message?"

Vex’s grip on her hand tightened.

Keyleth ignored everything and everyone as she focused her attention solely on Allura. "You’ve met her," she said. "This Jester person, you’ve met her. Could you teleport me to her?"

Vex’s grip on her hand tightened. Keyleth barely noticed.

Allura frowned. "I suppose that I could scry on her and then try to teleport to her location," she said slowly. "But why would—"

_We found your mom._

"She says that they found my mom." Keyleth felt numb, in a way that she hadn't felt for years. Decades, even. "She says that she's with them. That my mom's with them."

Allura’s eyes went wide, and she stared at Keyleth for a long moment. She was fairly certain everyone else was staring as well, but she didn’t know for sure. Just then, Keyleth didn’t have the strength to do anything but focus her gaze on Allura and hope she could help.

"One moment," Allura said, only a hint of shakiness in her voice. "Let me see if I can get more information."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a small piece of copper wire. Then she started speaking, except Keyleth couldn’t understand her and somehow couldn’t even focus on her lips as she spoke. Magic. Allura was sending some type of message back, just like Jester had been doing to her.

"I thought Aunt Keyleth didn’t have a mom?" one of the twins whispered, their voice loud in the silence of the room.

Keyleth closed her eyes.

_We found your mom._

Larry pushed his chair away from the table. "Come on, kids," he said. "Let’s go see what the brigade’s doing."

"All of you go with your Uncle Larry," Vex said instantly. "You too, Vesper. Help him watch the little ones, and keep them away from that crazy halfling."

"That goes for all of you too," Scanlan said, presumably to his own children.

There was a chorus of groans.

_We found your mom._

"They’re on an island called Rumblecusp in the Lucidian Ocean," Allura said. "There was some type of creature there that affected people’s memories and made them forget things. The Mighty Nein were able to defeat it."

Keyleth opened her eyes. "And my mom?" she asked, and if her voice broke a little when she asked, well, she thought she could be forgiven considering the circumstances. "Is she really—?"

She couldn’t say the words. She couldn’t. The last time Keyleth had seen her mother, she’d still been a half-grown girl. She’d given up on ever seeing her again years ago, and what she’d found out in Vesrah had killed any lingering hopes she might have had that someday she and her mother and her father could be a family again.

Allura gave her a gentle smile. "Let me get everything set up to scry on them so that I can get us there," she said. "Then you can see for yourself."

_We found your mom._

A flicker of movement at the window caught Keyleth’s attention, and she glanced that way. A large raven was perched on the windowsill. Then she blinked and the raven was gone, as if it had never been there in the first place. Maybe it hadn’t.

But then again, maybe it had.

"My mom’s alive," Keyleth said slowly, almost tripping over the words as she said them for the first time in decades. "My mom’s _alive_."

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Twitter. (https://twitter.com/settiai)


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